Multidisciplinary futures of United Nations peace operations: A two-day hybrid conference

On 20 and 21 February, the Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding Working Group held a two-day hybrid conference at The Open University exploring the topic ‘Multidisciplinary futures of United Nations peace operations’. The conference included an international mix of academics, policymakers, and practitioners and good representation from postgraduates and early career researchers (ECRs). Dr Katia Coleman from University of British Columbia provided the keynote address ‘Studying UN peacekeeping at a time of crisis’ which is available to watch here.

Dr Sukanya Podder from King’s College London spoke of peacebuilding legacies and Dr Fernando Cavalcante from the United Nations reflected on  how emerging trends in counterterrorism may influence peace operations moving forward. The Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding working group would like to thank their funders, The Open University’s Centre for Global Challenges and Social Justice and BISA, which provided travel bursaries for postgraduate students and ECRs. Thanks also go to The Open University AV team and the BISA team for doing such a great job with the technology.